Alicia's 2014 mix

Sal's Super Late 2012 Mix

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1) Paul Chain Violet Theatre - Armageddon
Weird Italian proto-doom. Dude used to play in Death SS and uses an "entirely phonetic language for vocals and which may or may not resemble real speech".

2) Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Death's Door
Despite the internet hype, this record is pretty great. Super catchy stoner-ish rock about killing people.

3) Aaron Dilloway - After the Showers
Dilloway released one of the best noise records of the past decade. Didn't want to bore anyone with a 20 minute long song, so I included this short piece.

4) Terry Reid - Seed of Memory
I think this song is on the soundtrack to some Rob Zombie movie. First half of this record is pretty amazing and I spent many long nights listening to it on repeat. Sounds like unreleased songs from Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners. The second half of the record sucks.

5) Rosa Mundi - Christmas Is Now Drawing Near
Short lived Coil side project who released only 2 or 3 songs.

6) Dead Lord - No Prayers Can Help You Now
You like Thin Lizzy? So do these guys.

7) Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady
Just started to seriously appreciate TG after reading about The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye. Check out the trailer here: www.balladofgenesisandladyjaye.com/

8) Menace Ruin - Salamandra
Always liked MR, but none of their records really stuck with me, which changed with this last one. They dropped most of the "metal" from their sound and now its just super blown out keyboards with some really weird vocals.

9) Hexvessel - Sacred Marriage
Their motto is "Plant trees and worship Sagan!" How can you go wrong with that?

10) Borrowed Time - Burning Mistress
You like Heavy Metal? So do these guys.

Dan W's top 10 of 2012

This year, the job and family kept me from being too adventurous in seeking out new music, I tended to stick to what I knew (so I'm looking fwd to digging into these other mixes).  I did try and see a bunch of live shows to make up for it though.  But what ended up getting played most was almost pop music, maybe not the most challenging stuff but stuff I just liked.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ewmo2f

1. I Found You - Alabama Shakes.  Love the retro sound and energy, especially that last 30 seconds where she gives a nod to Otis Redding's "Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)"  

2. Wild - Beach House.  They didn't break new ground, but this album was just as good as their last one, and it always makes me feel like summer in Blade Runner land. 

3. Shut It Down - Sarah Jaffe.   2011 I was obsessed with Sarah Jaffe, she started mostly as a quiet acoustic songwriter but now moved away into almost dance pop.  Love this cover of a Drake song, something about a well placed F bomb helps it along too.  

4. Ruin - Cat Power.  Cat Power pulled a Sarah Jaffe this year - ditch the mopey acoustic for dance pop, but man I played this to death for about 2 weeks straight.  

5. No Transmission - Guided By Voices.  Still enjoying the GBV reunion even if I finally can't keep up with Bob Pollard and company.  They released THREE reunion LPs in 2012 alone (not counting Pollard's solo albums).  This one is a killer

6. Apartment - Young the Giant.  Just a great catchy pop song, never got tired of it no matter how much I played it.  

7. No Fear - New Multitudes (Will Johnson, Jay Farrar, Jim James, Anders Johnson).  Love that Will Johnson took a Woody Guthrie lyric, a man suffering and seeing death coming for him, and made it into something inspiring, welcoming death instead of cowering from it.   This year for me was all about digging into Will Johnson's prolific career -  his band Centromatic, dreamier side project South San Gabriel, his stark solo acoustic stuff.  he blew me away at a house show, and also seems a really funny normal guy.  

8.  Give it Up Turn It Loose - James Brown.  I dug a bit deeper this year into JB than just the Star Time box set, and this one, what a SOUND.  Locked in groove, I love the break about 5:15 into the song too.  I could listen to them play this same groove 10 more times. 

9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five - Paul Mccartney.  I'm a big Beatles fan who never dug too deep into their solo careers past their greatest hits. Took my daughter to see Sir Paul this year, he played this song, and it stuck in my head for weeks tip I finally checked it out.  Paul can knock these out like nothing, just super simple catchy rockers.   

10.  True Love WIll Find You in the End - Jeff Mangum.  I fulfilled a dream of mine with my brother this year, getting to see Jeff Mangum live.  In The Aeroplane is by far my favorite album, to finally see the guy, hear those songs, hear him sound so great, was unbelievable.  He played a cover of Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You that seems a perfect epitaph for Jeff, if he never writes another song, it just seemed a perfect way to go out.  

Best of 2012 by Jiri
http://www.mediafire.com/?yvawr8w23lwlmcv

1. "Be Above It" Tame Impala
A speaker with Lennon-esque pop, rolling down a hill. Beautifully building momentum. This union of psychedelia with samples works so well.

2. "Your Daddy Loves You" Gil Scott-Heron
I dedicated a week of listening to everything Gil ever recorded. What an amazing journey!  "Winter in America" was my favorite.

3. "Shut the World Out" Lo-Fi-Fnk
I've been waiting for the follow-up to "Boylife" for about 8 years now – "The Last Summer" was so worth the wait. These fellas are still so young, but their euro-pop craftsmanship is about as refined as it gets.

4. "Heading" Young Man
This year John McEntire led me to Colin Caulfield. If the album title, "Vol. 1", hints at a series of records like this, I'm anxiously waiting for the next one! A precious reverie of an album with plenty of shiny, swelling flourishes.

5. "Harvest Moon" Poolside
Now that I'm all melancholy over being back from a tropical vacation, this track brings me right back in the sun. Daytime disco version of the Neil Young staple.

6. "Witchita Lineman" Glen Campbell
So lonely, so good.

7. "Polka Face" Weird Al Yankovic
A novelty cover masterpiece.

8. "Feelin' Single" R. Kelly
"If she wanna fool around, well two can play that game." Revenge-cheating anthem so artfully sleazy. "Write Me Back" is brilliant at times, but inconsistent. It has some major missteps (like his painfully white, over synthesized sock-hop called "Party Jumpin'"), but a few of the tracks could be R's best ever.

9. "Forget It" Blood Orange
Sounds like if Ennio Morricone and David Sylvian backed up Prince. Beautiful marriage of Western movie themes washing lover ice cold Japanese chops.

10. "The World Has Come to an End"
My apocalyptic mix for 2012. I started it last January and forced myself to stop working and finish this before the new year.

Alexis's 2012 mix

download here!

1. Sisters of Mercy - Walk Away - Weirdly enough, I never listened to SoM much before this year. I had heard them many times, but never listened on my own.  A goth classic.

2. Merchandise - In Nightmare Room - I'd describe Merchandise as kind of a showgaze blend of New Order and The Smiths.  This track is from the Children of Desire LP, which I recommend listening to the whole way through rather than to the songs separately.

3. Rat Columns - I Wonder - Dark, noisy pop from SF

4. Siamese Twins - In a Box - Female fronted moody pop, kind of reminds me of The Cure.

5. Anasazi - Nuclear Paradise - I missed these guys open for the Mob and forgot to check them out afterwards, but a friend randomly gave me a demo months later.  Dark punk? Death rock? More punk than darkwave. Something like that. From NYC, so hopefully I'll get to see them soon!

6. Sickoids - My Curse
7. Replica - You can't stop the Weather
8. No Statik - Sigh of Relief
These three make the list more for their live shows. The Replica/No Statik show this summer was one of the best shows I went to all year.  Up the punx.

9. Erasure - Hideaway - We (read: my mom) had a dubbed copy of Two Ring Circus that we played at least a million times when I was a kid, but I have no recollection of this song from then. I guess we only had as much of the album as could fit on one side of a tape. As one Amazon reviewer said, "If this CD sounds dated at all, I am blind to it."  He is completely wrong. There is probably nothing more dated than Erasure remixes. But still a great album.

10. Brandy & Monica - The Boy Is Mine - I had this in my head for about three weeks straight. So it's on my list.